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November 16, 2008 "Truthdig" -- - We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and clichés. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities.

There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.

It is precisely that kind of paid speech, which Mr. Clinton delivered 54 times last year for a total of $10.1 million in fees, that has complicated the vetting process that Mrs. Clinton is undergoing by the Obama transition team. “Whatever happens or doesn’t happen is between Obama and her,” Mr. Clinton said.

It is with a great pleasure that I offer you my heartfelt congratulations on your historic election victory.

This is indeed a proud moment not just for America, but for millions of others around the globe who have come to believe in and aspire for the kind of values that have become universally acknowledged as the hallmarks of American society. Your success is a remarkable reminder of the potential for promoting major change through the ballot box in a free and fair electoral process.

Mr. President-Elect,

The prospect for change as promised by you has already aroused a great deal of expectation from people everywhere who are hopeful of emulating your example by constructing societies based on peace, freedom, justice and opportunity.

No where is the desire for such change greater than in my homeland, Iran.

The people of Iran are perhaps amongst the most eager aspirants for the kind of values that have become synonymous with your success in the recent months. Iranians believe ‘that if allowed the opportunity, yes they will’.

It is their hope that with your moral and vocal support, they too can pursue their struggle for the realization of their individual liberties and fundamental freedoms along with the restoration of their pride and dignity as human beings.

It is necessary to bring to your notice that if the Mullahs were civilized enough to hold dialogues with, 30 years would not have passed, hundreds of thousands of Iranians and other innocent people around the world would not have been sacrificed to the alter of the Khomeinist Islamo-Imperialist revolution, and generally the world would not be in the shape that is finds itself in, right now.

You should be wise & careful enough not to be dragged into a trap spread by some shady so-called Iran Lover lobbyists, agents, spies, promoters and apologists.

Democratic sources tell ABC News that President-elect Obama appears to be turning to two retired four-stars for his National Security Adviser and his Director of National Intelligence.

Marine Gen. James L. Jones (Ret.), the former head of NATO and U.S. forces in Europe, has emerged as the leading candidate to serve as the National Security Adviser for President-elect Obama.

Admiral Dennis C. Blair (Ret.), former Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Pacific Command and a 6th-generation naval officer, has emerged as the top candidate to be President-elect Obama's Director of National Intelligence. He recently met in Chicago with the president-elect.

Neither job has been officially offered or accepted, and the Obama Transition Team would not confirm or deny either man's front-runner status.

ABC News has also learned that during this transition period in which he's assembling his Cabinet, Obama is listening to advice from Gen. Brent Scowcroft (Ret.), the former National Security Adviser for President George H.W. Bush, whose foreign policy Obama has said he admires. An appointment of a retired general to be National Security Adviser would be in the Scowcroft model.

(CNN) -- President-elect Obama is on track to nominate Sen. Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state after Thanksgiving, three aides on Obama's transition team told CNN Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is being talked about as staying on in an Obama administration.

1 of 3 Clinton senior adviser Philippe Reines repeated a statement that "any and all speculation about Cabinet or other administration appointments is for President-Elect Obama's transition team to address."

CNN also has learned that Obama is getting foreign policy advice from an unlikely source: Republican Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser in the first Bush administration.

Two sources familiar with the conversations confirm to CNN that Obama reached out to Scowcroft for phone chats even before he ran for president, and the back-and-forth has continued in recent days as the president-elect assembles his Cabinet.

Scowcroft is very close to current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is rumored to be in the running to stay in the Cabinet for at least an interim period at the start of the new Obama administration.

The Army of Muhammad is back. This was the message buzzing in radical Islamist circles yesterday as the world tried to absorb the shock of the terrorist attacks in Bombay , India 's economic capital.
While it is not yet clear which group was behind the attacks, it looks as if the perpetrators were trying to imitate the tactic of ghazwa, used by the Prophet against Meccan caravans in his decade-long campaign to seize control of the city.
The tactic consists of surprise no-holds-barred attacks simultaneously launched against a caravan or settlement with the aim of demoralising the enemy and hastening his capitulation.
The Bombay attacks differed from previous terror operations in India in a number of ways. In the past, one approach had been to place explosive-packed devices in crowded places with the aim of killing large numbers at random. Another was suicide attacks on specific targets by lone "volunteers for martyrdom".
This time, however, the approach was "symphonic", in the sense that it involved different types of operations blended together.
Involved in the operations were men who had placed explosives at selected points. But there were also gunmen operating in classic military style by seizing control of territory at symbolically significant locations along with hostages. Then there were militants prepared to kill, and be killed, in grenade attacks against security forces.
Whoever designed the operations had another important Islamic tactic in mind: tabarra or exoneration.
This consists of separating the "outsider", in this case the British and American "infidel", from the community with the intent of blaming them for the ills of the world before sacrificing them. It was no accident that one of the places attacked was a Jewish centre, where gunmen seized a rabbi and several members of the congregation as hostages.
The loud message was that a small group of individuals could turn a megalopolis of almost 15 million inhabitants into a battlefield for at least a day.
Terrorism is a beast with an extraordinary ability to mutate. As soon as its victims have learnt to cope with its methods, it develops new ones. Groups of anarchists throwing bombs follow the lone assassin who would target a king or a political leader. The hijacking of passenger jets is replaced by the transformation of aircraft into missiles against fixed targets.
All the time, the intention is to terrorise the largest number of people, eroding the ordinary man's confidence in the ability of the authorities to protect him, and, in the long run, persuading a majority of the people, who just want to live their lives, to trade their freedom for the security that the terrorist promises in his utopia.
Although new to India , the tactic of "symphonic" attacks has been tried in a number of other countries in the past decade, notably Algeria , Iraq and Saudi Arabia , at times with devastating effects.
Most recently, it was tried, on a smaller scale, by the Taliban in the Afghan city of Qala-Mussa . Theoretically, the tactic could be used in any city, from Bombay to New York , passing through London and Paris .
On Wednesday, it was obvious that India 's various anti-terror units were surprised, unable to cope with methods of operations not mentioned in their manuals.
So far the only claim of responsibility has came from a hitherto unknown group using the name the " Deccan Mujahedin".
This may be a cover for other groups, perhaps the Lashkar Tayyiba (the Army of the Pure) and the Jaish Muhammad (the Army of Muhammad), two terrorist organisations created by the Pakistani military intelligence services.
Earlier this year, in one of his last acts as president, Pervez Musharraf announced the dissolution of both, but it is possible that the two groups and their backers in the Pakistani military and intelligence elite have returned to the market under a new brand, with new tactics.
The attacks came 48 hours after Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, practically threw away 50 years of Pakistani policy by announcing his readiness to end the dispute with India over Kashmir.
Zardari is an ethnic Baluch who, unlike previous Pakistani leaders who had Indian backgrounds, has no direct family history in pre-partition India . As a result, he is not as sensitive on Kashmir as his predecessors.
The Bombay attacks could be a message to Zardari that, though he may be uninterested in Kashmir, the issue is still central to many in Pakistan .
The new label used may also be significant. Deccan, a region in south-central India , was the intellectual and cultural capital of Indian Islam for centuries.
By using the term " Deccan Mujahedin", the terrorists may be trying to pass two messages. First, that the Islamist movement is no longer interested only in Kashmir but intends to strive for the reconquest of the whole of India for Islam.
This runs in line with the new pan-Islamist thinking that propagates the will to recover all lands once ruled by Muslims – from India to Spain and southern France , passing by Siberia, parts of Russia and the Balkans. " Deccan " designates a movement that has universal aspirations precisely because it claims local roots.
The designation is also intended to show that India now has a home-grown Islamist terror movement.
This started to form more than a decade ago after Hindu nationalists won power in New Delhi through the BJP and its radical anti-Muslim allies. The Islamist terror movement has adopted what is known as the Matryoshka method, after the Russian dolls nested one into another. The outer and bigger doll in this case is the Students' Islamic Movement of India (Simi), which claims millions of members.
Indian authorities call Simi an antechamber of terrorism. Within it are nested other dolls in the form of cultural associations, charities and political lobby groups. The smallest and deadliest doll represents the kind of groups that may have been behind these attacks.
The need for a home-grown terror movement in India may have been further emphasised by the success of the US-led coalition in destroying virtually all Islamist training bases and safe havens in Afghanistan .
With Pakistan also becoming inhospitable, partly thanks to Zardari's apparent determination to move his country close to both India and the United States, Indian Islamists are forced to look for training centres and safe havens at home.
While many have mentioned al-Qaeda as the perpetrator of the latest attacks, the connection is not easy to establish.
Many experts believe al-Qaeda has ceased to exist as an organisation, although it survives as a model and inspiration. Al-Qaeda's number two, the Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been calling on militants to refocus their efforts on winning power in Muslim countries such as India , which is home to 150 million Muslims, and thus the largest "Muslim" country in the world, ahead of Indonesia .
This is in contrast with Osama bin Laden's theory that the US and its Western allies must be prime targets because, if they fall, the world system they dominate will disintegrate, opening the way for Islam's final triumph.
It is possible that al-Zawahiri's writings influenced the Bombay attackers. But it is unlikely that he and al-Qaeda had any direct role in planning or executing them.
There are other reasons why India is targeted. Over the past five years, it has emerged as the largest aid donor to Afghanistan and the second most important backer of President Hamid Karzai's regime after the US .
The buzz in jihadist circles is that once the US and its allies have left, India will emerge as the principal foreign power behind the new democracy in Afghanistan . India is already playing a leading role in training and equipping the new Afghan army and police.
India has also moved from its traditional anti-Americanism to a new policy of close friendship with the US . Earlier this year, India signed a landmark nuclear co-operation agreement, paving the way for massive purchases of American military hardware in the future.
In jihadist circles, the new Indian economic boom is often described as the "House of the Spider", a reference to a sura of the same name in the Koran, Islam's holy book. On Wednesday, the attackers may have wished to show the flimsy nature of the "House of the Spider" by attacking Bombay , the engine of India 's economic transformation.
However, if that was the intention, the terrorists are likely to be disappointed. Bombay and India in general have been victims of terror before, although not in so spectacular a fashion. And yet they have managed to absorb the shock and move ahead.
As always, the terrorists may end up like the man who, having won a great many tokens at the roulette table, is surprised when the casino tells him his winnings cannot be cashed.

Amir Taheri is author of 'Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism'. His new book, 'The Persian Night', will be published next month.

CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama picked a national security team headed by former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bush administration holdover Robert Gates on Monday, and said he wants to consult with military commanders before settling on a firm timetable to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

Obama named Clinton, a New York senator, as secretary of state and said Gates would remain as defense secretary, a post he has held for the past two years.

At a news conference, the president-elect also introduced retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security and Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations.

The announcements rounded out the top tier of the team that will advise the incoming chief executive on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe.

"I assembled this team because I am a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions," he said.

For years, the U.S. State Department has called the Islamic Republic of Iran the world´s "most active state sponsor of terrorism," For years, U.S. officials say the Islamic Republic of Iran has continued to provide funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups based in the Middle East and elsewhere, posing a security concern to the international community. And for years, the U.S. Administration has been unable to outdo the Islamic Republic´s propaganda machine and clearly has been unable or perhaps unwilling to help the Iranian people to end this nightmare in Iran.

President George W. Bush, of all U.S. presidents, at his annual State of the Union addresses, spoke numerous times about the plight of the Iranian people. He once said, "If the Iranian people stand for themselves, the United States will stand with them." Throughout his presidency, the Iranians, of all people, hailed this courageous president, as an angel of freedom and his popularity was surging in Iran while his approval rating at home was going down.

...................

While I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year, let us pledge for a peaceful world by engaging, supporting and negotiating directly with the Iranian people or their legitimate representatives, not its current enemies, the Mullahs, their quisling-like lobbyists and mercenaries in the United States or elsewhere.

As an Iranian-born Canadian, I would like to thank you for making the distinction between Iranian citizens and the leaders in power who do not represent their voices. More leaders like you should take a stand and refuse to collaborate with officials of this un-democratic repressive regime that violates the rights of Iranians on a daily basis.

Please also pressure Iran to Stop Child Executions.
There are currently 140 children on death row in Iran despite the fact that Iran has signed the UN's ICCPR and CRC.
Vive la liberté, l'égalité, et la fraternité

Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier this week that he would not be able to shake hands with someone who said Israel had to be wiped off the map.

Ambassador Bernard Poletti was told of Iran's strong objections.

He was told there would be repercussions for relations if such remarks were repeated.

How is it that a people such as the Iranian people have the misfortune of being represented as they are today by some of their leaders?

Nicolas Sarkozy

In the speech, given on 8 December on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Mr Sarkozy said:

President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote:

"How is it that a people such as the Iranian people - one of the world's greatest peoples, one of the world's oldest civilisations, sophisticated, cultured, open - have the misfortune of being represented as they are today by some of their leaders?

"I have said this to my friend Kofi [Annan]: I find it impossible to shake hands with somebody who has dared to say that Israel must be wiped off the map.

"I know perfectly well that we must resolve what is perhaps the most serious international crisis we are having to resolve: that of Iran moving towards a nuclear bomb.

"We cannot resolve it without talking to Iranian leaders, but, after what was the Shoah, after what was the 20th Century, I cannot sit at the same table as a man who dares to say: Israel must be wiped off the map."

The Iranian president has repeatedly called for an end to the Israeli state and has described the holocaust as a myth.

In October 2005, the Iranian president made a statement in which he envisaged the replacement of Israel with a Palestinian state.

Nicolas Sarkozy wrote:

How is it that a people such as the Iranian people have the misfortune of being represented as they are today by some of their leaders?
Nicolas Sarkozy

7. Today our unity, position and expectation from others are defined and evaluated with new set of rules and test cases as guidance in search of truth:
a- Have a secular democracy purpose
b- Have a Human Rights purpose
c- Have a Free Society purpose
d- Have a primary effect to increase freedom at global level.
e- Have the element of Exchange of Ideas to expand public awareness, education and expansion of truth.

14. Complete separation of religion and State.

We believe in the concept of complete secularism in government, which generally means complete separation of the State from religion, or any ideology or philosophy which can be interpreted as religious (e. g. Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islamism, Judaism, etc., or extreme ideologies such as Fascism or Communism). Secularism can be considered as common sense versus Ideology.

Democracy without secularism and secular parties cannot survive and continue a tradition of freedom of choice when a non-secular regime comes to power, as demonstrated by the Nazi party in Germany, the Khomeinist regime in Iran, and more recently by the Hamas Party in Palestine. This principle has been proven historically many times and in many countries.

When there is religious intervention in the affairs of the public and the State, then it become necessary to make public the fact that a religion or its precepts have influenced governmental institutions. It becomes a duty of citizens, in the interests of freedom, to work to remove that religious influence, and restore secular governance.
According to the Iranian Great Hero Professor Kourosh Ariamanesh "No Iranian Is Muslim and No Muslim Is Iranian …" please see [6]

18. We are Free Iran Activists and Watch Group monitoring high government officials, Journalists, writers and scholars words and their actions based on the following direction from James Madison:

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men! Over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” The Federalist No. 51 (James Madison).

20- Rejecting any policy that is ignoring Human Rights, Free Society and Secular Democracy for interest in Blood for Oil.

21- Rejecting any policy which is ignoring Global Warming.

5. Why should we promote Dolphin Rights to the same level of Human Rights?
a) In the past 30 years, 6,000,000 dolphins have been killed by "fishing on dolphins" [2]
b) The research, conducted at the Duke University Marine Laboratory (US) and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland (UK) estimate that approximately 308,000 dolphins, whales, and porpoises killed in fishing gear annually [3]
c) To protect Dolphins from brutal slaughter it might be necessary to increase public awareness and ask for global actions and support by promoting Dolphin Rights to the same level of Human Rights... [/b]
d) The dolphin is one of the key ancient Iranian Mithraic Symbol .

Crowds gather on the National Mall in Washington for the swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009.
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

CNN wrote:

Obama, Bush get ready for change

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have arrived at the White House. They were greeted outside by President Bush and first lady Laura Bush. Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, joined the Bushes and Obamas. An estimated 2 million supporters have gathered in Washington to watch as Obama takes the oath of office at noon as the nation's first black president.
For full story please visit source URL:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.inauguration/index.html

Speaking at his inauguration, Obama signaled a break with former President George W. Bush’s anti-terrorism strategy, criticized as too reliant on military force and rough interrogation tactics. The U.S. can face down threats “not just with missiles and tanks,” nor by suspending America’s ideals “for expedience’s sake,” Obama said. America’s “power grows through its prudent use,” he said.

Without naming countries, Obama said the U.S. would “extend a hand” to any foe willing to “unclench your fist.”

Obama said “for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

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Here we go again, another kiss-ass, apologetic, Madeline Albright policy from Obama administration. Let’s see if the “negotiation” with Taazi ragheads, will give Obama, more than “death to America.”
____________________________

President Barack Obama's choice for spy chief, Dennis Blair, said Thursday that U.S. intelligence agencies should seek ways of working with Iran on issues of mutual interest, underscoring the new administration's interest in engagement with elements in the Islamic state.

"While policymakers need to understand anti-American leaders, policies and actions in Iran, the intelligence community can also help policymakers identify and understand other leaders and political forces, so that it is possible to work toward a future in both our interests," retired Admiral Blair said on Thursday in a prepared statement for a Senate hearing on his nomination as Director of National Intelligence.

Blair also backed Obama's decision to close Guantanamo prison and said humane treatment standards for terrorism suspects must apply throughout the government, breaking with the Bush administration's insistence on an exemption for the CIA.

"I agree with the president that the detention center at Guantanamo has become a damaging symbol to the world and that it must be closed," Blair told the Senate hearing,
"There must be clear standards for humane treatment that apply to all agencies of U.S. government, including the intelligence community," Blair said.